Auction Divvies Up Drug Dealers` Spoils

September 12, 1990|By John Lucadamo.

Here`s a chance to get some ill-gotten gains and help out law enforcement at the same time.

An Elgin auction house this weekend will be selling more than $2 million worth of jewelry, coin collections and fur coats. It is doing so for the U.S. Marshals Service, which seized the valuables because they were purchased with profits from the sale of illegal drugs.

The items include a Rolex watch laden with diamonds and valued at $26,000 and a diamond and emerald bracelet, a favorite of Shawn Dunning, whose family operates Dunning`s auction house.

``If I`m going to dream, I might as well dream big,`` she said, speaking of the bracelet, which is appraised at $18,560.

``I`m sure a lady from Chicago or Barrington will have to have it,`` she said, estimating that the bracelet might be sold for $10,000 to $13,000.

Some of the items, such as watches seized from jewelry stores that were used to launder drug profits, still have the retail prices on them, Dunning said.

Dunning`s began to receive, appraise and catalog the items about three weeks ago from Marshals Service offices in Illinois and several other states, including Georgia, Texas and Colorado.

Under federal law, proceeds from the auction, minus Dunning`s commission, will go to the federal government and to the law enforcement agencies that built the cases against the individuals whose property was seized.

The auction will run for three days beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday at Dunning`s, 755 Church Rd., Elgin. On the first day, some 600 lots of coins will be auctioned, including rare items as well as Krugerrands.

Sunday will be the biggest day, Dunning said, with the sale of jewelry and fur coats. On Monday, more jewelry as well as electronic items will go on the block.

Although the diamond and emerald bracelet and a diamond necklace are unquestionably high-class pieces, not every drug dealer was blessed with good taste.

So some of the items, like a gold ring with diamonds that spell out

``Omar,`` might not appeal to the Gold Coast set. There`s also an ensemble of gold rings fashioned to look like brass knuckles.

``We call that scrap,`` Dunning said, adding that the gold would probably be melted down for reuse and that the diamonds would be used in other jewelry.